Ranking of the factors affecting productivity of microtunneling projects

The need to provide utility service lines with less disruption to the ground surface has increased the demand for trenchless excavation methods like microtunneling. Although the microtunneling technique has been used in the United States since 1984, the factors influencing the success of construction process are not completely clear among industry parties. Better understanding of the factors affecting the microtunneling construction process will facilitate enhancing and modeling the productivity of microtunneling projects. A questionnaire was sent to microtunneling experts to study the factors affecting productivity and their ranked importance. The participants are contractors, engineers, and manufacturers in the United States and Canada. This paper presents the results of analyzing the responses of the experts in the microtunneling industry. This research builds up the basics for modeling the microtunneling productivity of microtunneling projects. It will help microtunneling contractors identify the most affecting factors on microtunneling productivity and then building productivity models.